


Walk in another direction

by chan_bi



Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 14:54:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6570565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chan_bi/pseuds/chan_bi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Looking up, he saw that a crowd of forty maybe fifty people was forming a circle around him, not only children but men, women, clients and sellers had stopped their daily activities and were looking at him, hanging on his every word. A rush of adrenaline, very different from the ones he had started to get used to fighting the war side by side with Flint, took him. This was what he was good at, he could be a cook, a quartermaster, a pirate or a king, but this was what he was born to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk in another direction

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [pirate_prompts_2016](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/pirate_prompts_2016) collection. 



> This is my first fic for Black Sails, hope you'll like it  
> Thanks to Daisy as always  
> Feedbacks are always appreciated, if you find some mistake (and you will, English is not my first language) let me know, here or on tumblr ([Lylvandam](http://lylvandam.tumblr.com/))  
>   
>  **Prompt:**
> 
> Set in the future where the war for Nassau has been won, and Silver and Flint are together but keeping it a 'secret' (not that they are especially discreet). Flint and Silver are living together in Miranda's house, but Silver is bored so he starts doing a Nassau announcement in the tavern, basically the same as his gossip-mongering on the Walrus but with more gossip and a bigger audience.
> 
> Play with the idea as you will! Include other characters and pairings as you will too!

The war to reclaim Nassau was over. They won. Nassau was finally free from the Crown, pirates free to sail the waters of the world.  
But not Flint. 

The day they won the war, before any decision about how to maintain a new order in the island, Flint spoke to his crew on the beach, explaining to them that they should elect a new captain and a new representative in the round table, to make the decisions about defense and government he no longer had the energy to make. After that, he walked away without another word . Most of the men looked around confused, after so many sacrifices and losses suffered following their captain, when they had finally reached their purpose, he was leaving before even relishing it. 

Despite the disappointment they soon realized that before anything else they needed to think about appointing a new captain, too many decision were to be made in a short time. The majority of eyes had immediately fallen on their quartermaster, the more evident choice, even if the man was one of the less practiced sailors among them. Before they could even think about professing their opinion on the matter though, Silver spoke, with his eyes fixed on where their, at this point former, captain had left.

He made a longwinded speech about the importance of passing the baton to new generations, saying how there are times when some people have to make sacrifices, and even if their intention was to benefit from them at the end, the circumstances couldn’t permit it. It was a truly beautiful speech, that ended with the election of the new captain, Billy Bones, an handshake between the two men, and a promise of everlasting friendship.

However, they'd all know Silver so well and for long so not a single soul believed a word that came out of his mouth, and not only because Silver and Billy were from the same generation. They all knew the real reason because he suddenly decided to leave the life, but, for once, the crew pretended not to know and he, from his part, pretended not to notice that they all knew.

He walked away in the same direction of Flint.

Six month later, Silver was at the town market trying to trade some cabbages with some potatoes.

They were living a quiet uneventful life. They shared the house previously owned by Miranda, after a while Flint had came to terms with it, and he could now walk around the rooms accompanied by only a tolerable amount of ghosts.  
Silver could see that the newly found tranquillity was exactly what Flint needed. He, on the other hand, even if he was happy, happier that he could ever imagine, even before he undertook the pirate life, had the sensation that something was slightly off.  
He couldn’t understand what it was, it was like an itch he couldn’t scratch and hadn’t scratched for months. Nothing major, but something bothering in the back of his mind nonetheless. Sometimes he would catch Flint watching him with a knowing and somewhat sad expression, like he knew what he was feeling and he knew the cause of it, and for some reason he also took responsibility for it. Silver never asked, he didn’t want to talk about it until he knew exactly what it was that bothered him.

The answer came halfway through a trade of vegetables.

He was late, most likely Flint was already waiting for him at the other end of the market, to get to the horses and go home.  
They had already fought all morning about this trip to town. 

_"We have a bloody treasure, why should we go back and forth trading cabbages?”_

_“We have a fucking cabbages garden, why should we spend our treasure money? I’ve been eating cabbages every day for a month, James. When you go to town this afternoon I will come along and sell all that is left of this hellish vegetables”_

The greengrocer was commenting on the scarce quality of his cabbages and Silver was starting to get frustrated. He would most likely have to try and find someone else to sell them to. He was about to do just that, when he heard a voice from beneath him asking: “Why, sir, one of your leg is made of steel?”  
He looked down and he saw a child, at most 10 years old, looking up at him.  
Silver never cared much for children, he had already met too many of them in his childhood, thank you very much, but he somehow decided to answer. After all, he wasn't one to resist an opportunity such as the chance of telling a new story.

Silver looked around and saw an empty basket on the table behind him, he took it, turned it upside down and sat on it so that his eyes were now at the same heigh of the child's.

“Imagine this.” He started, putting on his brand smile, huge and toothy, the one he reserved to strangers he wanted something from (to read anyone but Flint).  
“There I was,in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, on a rowboat with only a knife and half a quart of water. We were running from a ship, Captained by a man so terrible and with sins so horrible that I’m hesitating even to say his name in this fine afternoon.” 

“You see, this man, Captain Hornigold.” he said with a bitter gulp, like he was truly scared of a dead old man “ was so terrible that he renounced to all of his Oaths and had started to hunt his own brothers, for his own cruel amusement. Now, I’m not going to indulge into telling the circumstances that brought me in that particular scenery, just try to imagine: me and this other fellow, who had been a brother to me for months at that time, whose name was…Solomon Little, rowing in the direction of a land that was still barely above the horizon, followed by a real ship, just over the horizon on the other side.” 

He licked his lips, giving time to the situation to fully sink into the minds of what now had become a handful of kids sitting on the ground in front of him, not missing a word he was saying.

“After hours of rowing a thought came to my mind. We were dead men. Too much sun on our skin, too little water to fight the fatigue in our bones. I knew that Solomon Little was thinking the same thing behind me. I started to turn around, with the intention to try to come up with a better plan, when a row collided with my head and I fell into the water. Solomon Little had betrayed me, so that he could have all the water left on the boat and a chance to survive, to my detriment. I thought we were brothers. He was no better than Hornigold himself.” 

A pause for effect was needed so he adjusted himself, stretching his legs in front of him, bringing the needed attention of the kids back to his iron leg.

“ I started swimming towards the land, knowing full well I could never survive this, that that adventure was my last, when I became aware that I was not alone. A shark, bigger that the rowboat I fell of not half an hour prior, probably drawn by the blood from where the row had landed on my head, was swimming right next to me, and not with friendly purposes. By that time I had lost my boots and my coat, but I still had the knife on my belt.”

Silver at this point had no idea how to describe a fight in the water with a shark that could end with him without a leg and not dead, but that was the beauty of telling a story. The feeling in his gut when he himself hadn’t the slightest clue about what he was going to say next, when he had to just let the story roll out of his tongue, paying just enough attention to be aware of the details already told, to be sure he didn’t contradict himself. 

“ Now, you must understand, that was a rather eventful couple of minutes, my knife was no match against its teeth, and holding it in my hand i couldn’t use both arms to swim. So the shark got the better of me. It took my leg in his teeth, I could feel every single one of that beast's teeth breaking my skin.” 

He took a deep breath and stared at the horizon like he could still see that dreadful, completely fictional, fight. For a moment his mind pictured the time he really did wrestle a shark, and the man he did it with, who was now waiting for him on the other side of the market, probably scaring the poor people passing by with his anger due to Silver growing lateness. A smile was starting to surface on his lips but he carefully schooled it into a grimace, for effect. Everything for the audience.

“ I was so sure that that would be my end that a part of me thought about giving up, but another part of me, more primal and dark arose, and with all I had left in me I took a better grip on the knife and stabbed the beast between the eyes one, two, three, four times until I felt the bite on my leg starting to loosen.” Every stab in the story was accompanied by a blow with his hand on the bucket beneath him. A couple of kids where covering their eyes as if that could save them form the imaginary shark.

“I don’t remember much after that, I was drifting at sea, loosing blood and going in and out of consciousness until a fishermen boat found me and took me to land where a doctor took care of my leg. I’ll never forget the name of that fisherman, my savior, God only knows how he did it. William Skeleton, a really unfortunate name for a truly wonderful man I must admit. “  
He started to stand up, he really needed to be on his way if he didn’t want to make Flint more irritated than usual. He still had to trade half a basket of cabbages. Looking up, he saw that a crowd of forty maybe fifty people was forming a circle around him, not only children but men, women, clients and sellers had stopped their daily activities and were looking at him, hanging on his every word. A rush of adrenaline, very different from the ones he had started to get used to fighting the war side by side with Flint, took him. This was what he was good at, he could be a cook, a quartermaster, a pirate or a king, but this was what he was born to do. 

He smiled, he needed an ending, something to close with to make the story easier to be retold by the audience to the people that weren’t there.

“ I found out later, that that very day Hornigold ship took possession of a single little rowboat, with only a man on it. That man, I was told, wanted to join Horniglod crew of turncoats, he wanted to give information about the roundabouts of his former brothers. But the information he gave where old. They knew it, but Solomon Little didn’t, and he never saw the knife that sliced his traitor throat either.”

“Now if you'll excuse me, this old leg needs to be tended to, I have to head home, I’m not as fast as I used to be…” Now that he was here, he could use the attention he was receiving “Can someone here help a poor sailor exchanging this cabbages with some potatoes?” 

A minute later he was set with what he wanted to purchase and made his way through the scattered crowd.  
He'd made less that ten steps when he saw Flint leaning on a wall, on the other side of the road, half smirking half frowning, like he himself wasn’t sure if he was more irritated by the delay or amused by the reason of it.

“Had your fun?”  
Silver just smiled, as they slowly started walking toward their horses.

++++++++++

After that Silver found himself restless.  
Now that he finally understood what it was that he was missing so much, he found himself always making up more pretexts to go to Nassau. Just hanging around and randomly talking to strangers. 

If Flint noticed the increasing number of always more random and over the top excuses to take the horse and disappear for hours at a time, he didn’t say anything, nor he seemed at all disturbed. Everything seemed to be good between them and Flint only seemed the normal amount of irritated by Silver and his behavior in general. Which was a big amount of irritation to have between two people other than them, if Silver had to be honest. But it suited them and he wouldn’t trade all the eye rolling, the grunts and the curses for anything in the world. 

But still telling stories to random people wasn’t enough. He knew it, he didn’t need someone to talk to (He had Flint for that, and he was a way smarter conversationalist, when he was in an indulgent mood, than any other person he could meet in his whereabouts.)  
He needed an audience.  
And for once in his life he didn’t have a clue about how to achieve what he wanted. So he kept disappearing and talking and fabricate stories for strangers.

Three week after his first tale, they were eating supper.  
One of the first thing “they” decided after moving to the house was that Silver needed to learn how to cook in a decent way, a way edible by human beings, so that they could make turns in the kitchen.  
Flint had said it as if it was Silver's fault he didn’t learn how to cook, without a teacher and with only the ingredients and the tools of a pirate ship, always with a horde of hungry pirates circling him.  
After months of food spitted angrily, houses almost burned down, fights and yells Flint had finally admitted that Silver had become a good enough cook to be allowed to prepare a meal without his irritated inputs.

So, that day, they were eating fish, gutted and cooked by Silver himself.  
Silver was talking about nothing in particular when Flint interrupted him.

“You know, Max's brothel is a very interesting place”  
Silver stopped eating and looked up at him bewildered, what the fuck was he talking about?  
Was Flint thinking he was spending his time at the brothel when he was away?  
The other man's face wasn’t giving anything away.  
He tried to keep a neutral answer.  
“I guess it must be…”  
“ All those women and nobody to pay them any attention, other that in the obvious way…”  
Was he smiling?  
“… So they see and hear everything…”  
Wait a minute, surely Flint wasn’t thinking what he thought he was thinking. Silver could feel his own lips turning upwards  
“ …and they report all to one person.”

Flint gave him an all too knowing look, they stared at each other for a few moments, grinning like idiots, then Flint looked down and resumed eating. Silver watched him for a few more minutes. Flint not only had known all along what he was up to, but he also understood what was still wrong with him and found a solution to the problem. Normally, Silver considered himself as the one person who could understand any situation and find new ways to turn it in his favor; being daily with someone who could surprise him so much was something he would have never thought he could achieve.  
Maybe he should tell him that, or at least thank him.  
Instead he said:  
“Tomorrow I’ll go to Nassau, many errands to run, don’t wait for me for lunch.”  
Flint nodded as if he really thought there were errands to be run.  
“You do that….. We are out of cabbage”  
Why was he still living in that house, he fucking hated James Flint. That he told him to his smirking fucking face.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“It’s an investment!”  
“How, exactly? How giving you informations for free is an investment?”  
“Useless, they’ll be useless informations for you! I have no intention to be suck down into the politics of this place again, we had it enough to last a lifetime”  
“ So what exactly are you after?”  
“ I told you, I’m here to offer you a business plan”  
He was sitting in Max office.  
At his arrival into the brothel ten minutes prior Max had given him a resigned look, as if she was sure that his appearance would lead to unwelcome developments, which was rude, if you’d ask Silver, but also, honestly, understandable.  
She had agreed to meet him in her office, ready to talk about serious matters she was sure he was bringing.  
Now she was staring at him. He didn’t know if she looked more relieved, bewildered, amused or suspicious.  
“Your business plan for me being, me giving you the unimportant gossip my girls bring to my attention for free and let you tell everybody in a tavern I do not own? How exactly…”  
“First of all” he interrupted her “ Please, you do not own the tavern. You may not be sitting on the chair but we both know you hold it. Let’s not waste our time and drop the act.”  
“Yes, let’s do that. Do not waste any more of my time, Long John Silver, and tell me exactly what are you trying to accomplish with this visit.”  
She had said his pseudonym with a voice full of mockery and anger. Silver didn’t wince only because of practice. All the time spent alone with Flint lately had almost made him forget that he was as good at getting on people nerves as he was at getting them to like him. He had almost started to believe it was a talent of his regarding James alone.  
Max was still talking.  
“Do you really expect me to believe that you are doing this for the pleasure of the community? That you will not, in fact, listen to every useless information I will give you waiting for the day I’ll make a mistake and deliver something you’ll use against me?”  
Silver shook his head and sighed.  
“You know, when Flint decided to move away from all of this.” Why was she rolling her eyes?  
“and I decided I didn’t want to be captain and subsequently choose to leave the Walrus as well” God, her eyes could really develop real problems if she kept doing that. “ I never would have thought I’d be so happy with my decision. You all really need to calm down. I have no intention of stealing your position. I just want to give people what they don’t yet know they want: me.” He flashed her a smile. “And I assure you it will bring people to the tavern. It’s publicity, your business will flourish!”  
For some reason she seemed already more relaxed.  
“And besides, if I really will come to crave for power again, I will have other, more efficient, ways than to steal yours. After all I remain Long John Silver.”  
He said it like it was a joke, like the idea of himself being a man whose bare name could bring fear into people’s hearts was absurd. How things could change in just a handful of months.  
Max still looked hesitant, but her eyes had lost the anger they showed only moments before, now they seemed only curious.  
Silver knew he had won.  
+++++++++++++++++

The tower bell had rung four times a few minutes before. Silver knew it was time. If he gave an easy to follow routine to the men, his plan would come along more smoothly. First thing on the list, an established schedule.

He looked up from his notes, the tavern wasn’t very crowded, but it had to suffice for now. 

He took a deep breath, he was ready, he just hoped he didn’t have to suffer through a lot of beatings this time around before getting where he wanted to be.  
He smacked his iron leg two times on the ground to make enough noise, hoping people would hear it over the moderate din in the room.

Complete silence fell in the blink of an eye, all eyes on him within seconds. Every single person in the room, Silver included, was suddenly thinking about the same thing. He looked down at his feet(foot?), he could almost see Dufresne face smashed across the floor, his iron boot red from his blood. He gulped and looked up, again. Everyone was still watching him. The only noises Silver could hear were coming from outside the tavern and from his own heart. He could see the fear in every single face that was looking up at him. 

Well, he wanted their attention, didn’t he? Easier than expected, and apparently he probably could achieve this without a single beating, and that was always a plus.

“Accounts of Goings On, Volume the First, on 23h July 1717 in the Year of our Lord. First item.” He stumped his leg again. Almost everyone in the room flinched. But from a corner of the room an hysterical laughter erupted. At a table on his far right Dooley was almost crying from laughter, Joji sat next to him smirking.  
If he had known the Walrus crew was on port he would have looked up some gossip on Billy.  
He did a extremely scenic bow in their direction, grinning hard, then started.  
“A certain member of this community, who shall remain nameless, was seen…” As he told his first piece the room remained completely silent, safe from the laughter from the Walrus table, but the tension was already less palpable, everyone just seemed very confused. Still better than his first try with his crew. 

After another couple of items, people started realizing that no one was going to get maimed or killed and they started to relax and enjoy the show. When he arrived at the end of his notes the whole room was filled with laughter and shouts.

“Last item.” All the people in the tavern beat their glasses on their table two times. “I’ll use this last bit to thank you for your attention, this is the end the Accounts for today. I will be here in three days time, after the fourth bell, if you’ll have me.” He said it as if there was an actual chance that the men in the tavern could refuse him, but the majority of them where already trying to find a way to offer him one drink or a thousand.  
He graciously refused moving towards the door. Once he was a step into exit he turned, the attention of the room still completely on his person. “Until next time, my friends” he said as he bowed one more time.

++++++++

In the next few weeks, Silver kept going into the tavern every three days, always at four o’clock, giving his accounts.  
Every time the tavern got more crowded, at the point that at the sound of the bells, as he was walking himself in that direction, Silver could see people leaving whatever they were doing and hurrying into the tavern from every part of town. 

After a while, he started mixing the gossip with made up stories and satire on the people in authority. Max, Teach, Madi, Rackham, (sometimes Idelle and Feathersone, now proud owners of the establishment hosting his Accounts) he took shots at every single one of them, never saying anything really critical because he actually enjoyed the current status quo. He made sure of having always something to say about Billy, for when he and his Ben Gunn shaped shadow, or even others from the Walrus crew, showed up. He always liked when Billy was there, he kind of missed the folded arms and judgmental stares. Silver never made fun of Anne Bonny though. He had tried just once, a night when she and Jack were drinking at the counter, but halfway through his argument he'd met her eyes; she had growled at him making him gulp and freeze. He'd stopped talking altogether to start again with a new item. He never had the guts to try again, even when he was positive she was out at sea.

At some point Flint had started to accompany him to town every time. He said that with his leg he was meant to fall off the horse at some point, that he wanted to follow him only to make sure to catch the animal when it would have happened. Horses are very expensive, just because they had a small treasure didn’t mean they had to waste it. Silver would have believed him (probably not, it was the lamest excuse he ever heard in his life) if it wasn’t for what happened the first time Flint went to the tavern with him. The instant he had finished talking, James had manhandled him into the first door he found, had gotten on his knees and had blown him until he saw stars. 

The power of a story indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Awesome prompt, by the way, I had so much fun
> 
> Also, I'm having very strong feelings about cabbages today, I apologize for letting my emotions get in the way of my storytelling


End file.
